Detroit art punk art rock queen Niagara will team with iconic rock and roll soldiers the Hitmen for a seven-date Australia tour in April.
The St Valentine's Day Massacre Tour will promote the CD of the same name, released locally on Savage Beat/Shock.
The album captures the one-off February 2008 show at The Crest Hotel at Sylvania in Sydney when Niagara was lured out of retirement, with the Hitmen as her backing band. The one-off how as a spectacular success, drawing a full house of rabid fans.
Fans can expect more of the same with a two-hour show comprising a Hitmen set followed by a high-energy bracket from Niagara, reprising songs from Destroy All Monsters, Dark Carnival and the Stooges.
Niagara made a name as the femme fatale of Detroit bands Destroy All Monsters and Dark Carnival, whose ranks included late Stooges guitarist Ron Asheton. Destroy All Monsters released a string of singles and toured the US and England extensively in the late 1970s and early ‘80s.
Dark Carnival were a travelling carnival of high-energy underground American rockers, whose ranks variously included Niagara, Ron Asheton, Stooges drummer Scott Asheton and Dead Boys guitarist Cheetah Chrome.
The Hitmen are one of the Australian rock scene’s most enduring acts, a Radio Birdman outgrowth who took underground music to the suburbs and towns. They were re-animated by principal members Johnny Kannis and Chris Klondike Masuak in 2007 and have rallied old and new fans since with their back catalogue re-issued in deluxe packaging by Savage Beat/Shock.
Dark Carnival made it to Australia in 1991 for a 43-date tour with the Hitmen. Their 2010 shows will bring that connection full circle.